the art of lingering
by Her.Vanilla.Majesty
Summary: "Good morning, Reyna," he says, and she grunts because she's already strung along more than five words into a sentence, which means she's met her quota today for the being-less-repressed-is-a-small-step-towards-social-acceptance-as-said-by-Percy-Jackson program. -AU threeshot .


_Author's Note: _Read. Or, you know, you don't have to...but maybe you should. (._.)

Oi! What's this? My first Percy Jackson AU?

...Yes, this is why I haven't updated **Death to Pain - **because I wasn't sure whether or not I could slip in an AU three-shot in a story that is now developing a plot when I had not formerly intended on it. :(

On a sidenote, since when I have I become so enamored with Percy and Reyna? It all happened so fast...

Enjoy and review.

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_Disclaimer: The word 'disclaimer' should give you a hint as to what should be put here, right?_

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**1: the beauty of the first(s)**

"You should know that this coffee sucks," is the first thing Reyna greets him with.

And so he smiles loftily and takes a seat across from her.

The day has officially begun.

(insert metaphorical cheer from Reyna here)

"Good morning, Reyna," he says, and she grunts because she's already strung along more than five words into a sentence which means she's already met her quota today for the being-less-repressed-is-a-small-step-towards-social-acceptance-as-said-by-Percy-Jackson program.

Percy reaches for the crinkled brown paper bag in front of her and pulls out his usual chocolate muffin, chewing thoughtfully. Reyna watches because she can't stand sweets—but it figures that Percy would love something she'd hate, and so she smiles (inside, of course. If she really did smile then the idiot would think these sessions worked when they clearly don't).

"How was your day?"

"It sucked," Reyna snaps, very pointedly, and tightens her scarf. "As usual. Why Thalia thought you could fix that is beyond me."

"Never doubt my emphatic abilities," Percy says, clicking his tongue. "For they are beyond the scope of your mere mortal comprehension."

"Surprise," Reyna says, smiling a smile that is all teeth. "You finally sound like you went to college."

Percy nods, smiling back full force to counter the malice in hers—and quite honestly, Reyna wants nothing more to do that splash her terrible-atrocious-gods-awful-_did-someone-piss-in-this? _drink in his face because – contrary to popular belief (and as firmly attested to by her brain in cooperation with her eyes) – Percy Jackson does not look handsome when he smiles.

He actually looks…well, ditzy for lack of a better (and less severe) word. But Reyna thinks that maybe this is one of the reasons she is able to _**tolerate**_ talking to him about what Thalia has dubbed to be "Her Past"—complete with capital h's and p's.

"I found my sister," she tells him, and the smile vanishes—gone as quickly as it came—then is replaced by a blinding grin.

"That's great!" Percy beams, and for a second she almost forgets that it's not great at all and smiles back. "Where has she been this whole-"

"New York."

"Ah?" Percy lifts a brow. "Really? That's where I was born, you know."

"Yes, Percy, I know. You practically bared your life story to me the first day we met."

"I did," Percy agrees. "It was very long and touching and I almost made myself cry."

"Well this won't be," Reyna says. "She's not coming to visit me."

There is silence and shadow dawns on Percy's face, his voice dipping low with confusion.

"You haven't seen each other in ten years, Reyna."

"And now it'll be ten years and a day. It's fine," she tells him, waving her hands in the air to shoo the subject away.

She hates talking about things that she can't completely swallow down yet. Things like her sister or the orphanage or the divide between them because her life's always been such a melodramatic soap opera from the moment she was born without a mother or father.

"Your sister. Hylla—that's her name, right?" Percy says, trying not to notice how she flinches imperceptibly when his fingers skitter across the back of her hand. "You've – talked? You've talked in the very least, right? How else could you have found her?"

"We talked," Reyna mutters, jerking away to lean back into her chair. "She can't come. She's - busy."

"Then we'll go to her," Percy offers and she narrows her eyes at him at the 'we' in his sentence.

"No, Percy. She doesn't want that—and, frankly, neither do I."

"You're not thinking clearly," Percy says. "And I'm really, _really _confused. So run by me again why you can't see your sister who you have been studiously searching for for nearly a decade."

Reyna glares at him, feels the words bottle up in her chest and spill sideways in her lungs, hot and sticky.

There are plenty of things to say, really.

And, for once, she wants to let it all out.

She wants to say that Hylla is selfish and has not been searching for _her _these last ten years and has been living a better life in New York and days have gone by where Reyna has never crossed her mind because it is so jumbled with work and Circe who pays her tuition, who told her to stay in New York because she had such _potential _(why waste that on family) and she has not called even once or written a letter even once and she is a horrible sister for doing that.

She wants to say she doesn't care because Hylla is "Her Past" and the only reason why she is even in here, sitting across from him, drinking inedible coffee is because she's worked her whole life trying to overcome "Her Past", right?

She wants to say Hylla forgot her—and she wants to say vice versa, but then she'd be lying (a liar like her sister).

She wants to say she doesn't care _period. _End of discussion.

"Reyna?" Percy prods her, curiously, and then she opens her mouth-

and starts _bawling._

…

The café quiets down considerably, and Percy stiffens all over as the patrons—especially some very man-hatey females—start to lean over to shoot him dark glares.

He almost wants to tell them he didn't do anything, but figures that getting Reyna to calm down takes top priority because a Crying Reyna makes for a Very Uncomfortable Percy.

(Logic of life: Uncomfortable Percy led to Idiot Percy which led to Pissed Reyna, eventually heightening to Pissed Thalia which directly resulted in Percy Jackson's Body Being Found Somewhere Dark And Secret.)

Reyna gasps and sputters, her hands plastered on her face as if to stem the steady flow of tears—and Percy sees this and thinks

(-_this is it. This is really it. A lifetime's worth of bottled frustration and sadness)_

this is not what he wanted.

This is beyond your "scope of empathy", Jackson, his heart warns him. Also, you made Reyna cry.

It is the last part that sends his conscience staggering to its knees in overwhelming mortification.

_I made Reyna cry._

Thalia's going to maul me, he groans in his head, and panic surges through his veins, making him fidget for a good minute before he reaches over awkwardly to grab Reyna's shoulders and hoist her to her feet.

She buries her head between his shoulder blades and his arms hover uncertainly over the small of her back—half sure that Reyna will take this as a sign of comfort and not choke him in a headlock for touching her without permission.

An angry blond woman sitting in the corner, slips off her glasses (and it probably wasn't the best time for him to think that her eyes were awfully pretty, looking back on it) and puts down her book (a thick, lengthy novel titled _Anna Karenina—_and Percy thought, _oh_, she's foreign_)_ clutching at the air and making gestures, mouthing out words.

_Hug her, Seaweed Brain._

_Oh, _he mouth back, and does just that. Then he mulls over it and whisper-screams at her, _Seaweed Brain?_

Reyna stops, gathers in her air, and manages to keep from shaking.

The flow of tears is temporarily dammed and he is relieved.

(temporarily, of course)

"What," she says, and he freezes all over when the coldness of her voice penetrates his ears, "do you think you're doing?"

And then Percy is flat on his back, groaning in pain before he can say anything.

The day has ended.

(insert grumbling and groaning)

…

The door is slammed shut and Percy blinks as blond hair drifts towards the edge of his vision.

The girl from earlier is there, hunched over because she's taller than what he expected, and her eyes are grey and even prettier up close, he thinks secretly.

She is smiling, trying not to laugh.

"Sorry," she says, and Percy assumes she's apologizing that she gave him such painful advice. "Are you all right?"

She holds out a hand when he shakes his head and he takes it.

"I'm Annabeth," she tells him.

"That's kind of pretty," he tells her and shakes her hand. "I'm Percy."

And then life goes on for a short while (on this side of the coin).

(insert love-at-first sight sigh here)

.…

"You have a sister?"

Hylla looks up, more than a little irked, her traditional morning cup of hot chocolate inches away from her lips.

Jason is in front of her desk, leaning forward with his arms crossed on the edge of her desk, hands supporting his face—which was currently screwed into an expression of utmost earnestness, as if waiting for a good piece of gossip.

Hylla's lips almost jerk to an automatic scowl.

Jason is a relatively nice, young man, and she tolerates him for the better part of their partnership. Handsome and witty—but maybe a little bit too ditzy and dense for her taste.

"How did you come upon this?" she asks.

Jason's smile does not waver and he beams at her stubbornly.

"Piper heard from Circe. Well, some eavesdropping was involved, really, but-"

"Go to your department, Grace."

Jason stops, then pouts. He pokes her and she bares her teeth to show that she will use her fists if prompted. Jason, as usual, is annoyingly apathetic to what a normal man would consider a daunting threat.

"You never told me you had a younger sister. Is she pretty?"

Reyna narrows her eyes, something small and dark inside her twisting at the word 'sister' because she knows, deep inside, she no longer has one-

She no longer deserves one.

She shuffles her papers, sifts through them absently, then shoves them to a startled Jason, who nearly topples backwards. He yelps, looks up at her, pretty blue eyes wide with concentrated dread.

"Hylla," he breathes out, slow and shaky. "What is this?"

"Quarterly reports from the Manhattan branch. Sales were dwindling, Circe wanted records sent and filed—entered into the system. Also, latte and turkey sandwich." Hylla lowers her head along with her voice. "Whole wheat this time, Grace. Not whole grain—or she'll bite your head off."

"Tch." Jason pins her with a sour look and walks away.

Hylla wonders if her sister is doing well, and as he closes her door with a muted click, she remembers static rupturing harsh words, the choppy sobs and even choppier apologies, and the steel slicing through the line and ringing hollow in her ears when she heard-

"_I __**hate **__you."_

She smiles and angles her head back down to watch her fingers twiddle.

It's better this way, and so she doesn't cry.

(insert "I WANTED WHOLE GRAIN, YOU DAMNED BLONDE MAN-PIG!" and sound of Jason screaming here)

…

"You quit your job?"

It's been a month since Percy groped her without knowing and she is considerably less furious.

Percy, however, is fuming—and Reyna doesn't know why.

"You just found out now?" she asks, brows spiking to her hairline because this is unexpected.

Ever since Percy had "taken her under his wing", as he put it sometimes when feeling particularly snobby, he had made it his utmost priority to stick his nose in every aspect of her life. Business, health, and her (nonexistent) love life.

Annoying.

"What?" Percy sputters. "When exactly did you-?"

"Two months ago."

"_Two months!"_ Percy practically roars, and the children on the swings shoot him wary looks as their mothers walked over with whispers of "don't stare, sweetie" and "we don't talk to people like that, okay?".

"Idiot, announce it to the whole world, why don't you?"

"You've been jobless for two months?" Percy demands, and he stands up from the park bench to tower over her properly. "What have you been doing?"

"Yoga," Reyna says, placidly. "Relieves stress, I hear. And Thalia and I have been looking for other opportunities, you know."

"But why quit your job?" Percy asks, gaze probing when Reyna finds that her sneakers have become very fascinating. "You loved it. You had great pay."

"Mundane," Reyna offers. "I want something…new, okay? I just…I can't work for Circe anymore."

"Why? Falling out with your boss?"

Something in Reyna's chest curdles and she shakes her head. "It's nothing, Percy. Don't look into it."

"What I really want to know," he begins, ignoring her words very studiously. "Is why I find out now. Just now. I mean-" he breathes out through his nose and runs both his hands through his hair. "_Gods. _How are you going to pay your rent, Reyna? Your loft isn't exactly inexpensive. And-"

"I'll be fine." She glares at him defiantly and anger swells in Percy's chest because she's so hell-bent on being stubborn about this and _what is happening to her?_

"I always am." She crossed her arms with a final sort of vehemence and he snorts brusquely. Her glare darkens. "And, just so you know, I did inform you of this earlier. Right after I quit, you were the first I called. You were busy. The voicemail said—business meeting, or something like that."

Percy looks away, heat rising to his cheeks.

Business meeting, right.

(insert gray-eyes and blond princess curls and first kiss here)

"So don't blame this on me," Reyna snaps, tartly. "If anything, you've got yourself to blame for missing your weekly subscription to "Reyna's Life"."

"Does this have anything to do with Hylla?"

The look Reyna gives him is unwavering and hard.

"No."

His phone buzzes and he reaches into his pocket after giving her a long, considering stare.

_Annabeth, _the screen flashes. _1 new message._

"I have to go," Reyna says, checks her watch for affirmation then nods. "I signed up for a cooking class. Thalia says I'll die if I eat take-outs for the rest of my life. She's such a health nut."

"Yeah," Percy says, then adds with his best do-what-i-say-or-I'll-put-up-that-photo-of-you-last-christmas-party-i-swear-i-will voice. "But we'll talk later."

"If there's time," Reyna shrugs and looks at him curiously because there's a softer light in his eyes that she can't identify. "See you."

"Hm."

They walk away from each other (for the first time).

(insert first goodbye here)

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**(And hello again!)**

**I've wasted all my wittiness and have nothing else to write except-**

**Review, please. :)**

**The next part should come soon, as long as I don't procrastinate too much. Don't hold your breath.**

**_(And Death to Pain will be updated soon. Pinky promise.)_**

**-HVM **out


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